I've just got home from Morrisons.

 There's a gentleman with a walking stick in his trolley queuing at the baskets only till. He's walked all around the store with the trolley. I say this is baskets only. He says oh that's ok I'm allowed I'm disabled. I bet you can't guess what's coming next. Oddly enough there were fairly large queues (not awful) at the standard tills. I say but you managed to get round the store and people have seen you, you're negating the whole point of 'baskets only'. He's just going into one in a surprisingly fit way when the cashier says that he's right and that's ok.

Related to five items or fewer in a positive way, I've just used the 'robot' check out at my new Tesco Express. BRILLIANT and it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. Barcode everything yourself, put it in a bag, pay by any means you like and robot lady says please take your shopping and ty for shopping at Tesco.

jjnaughalty:

I have to take m 6 month old son to help keep me entertained and distracted...

You could make a fortune renting him out to the rest of us who get stressed by it all. 

It's not the 5 items till in itself, the car park misdemeanours nor is it when people stop in front of you swinging the trolley to the middle of the aisle that bugs me. It's the whole thing about so many people turning into self-obsessed ignorant monsters when they get within 50yds of Tesco et al.

So much so (sad I know) that I think about it on the way to the supermarket and so am already wound up by the time I get there. I find myself looking for people 'misbehaving' when I get there...!!

I have to take m 6 month old son to help keep me entertained and distracted...

J

Catastrophica:

I once took some stupid man to task for
parking in a parent and child space.  ihad with me a four year
old, a toddler (with special needs and unable to walk very far,
so I had to carry her) and was very heavily pregnant.  He
nipped in the space depsite my indicating and I had to park further
away and lumber in.  Worst of all, his girlfriend or whatever
she was just sat in the car waiting for him.  I quite quietly took
him to task when I bumped into him in the store, and, though his only
response was a torrent of abuse, I got a round of applause from the
other shoppers.

Didn't help me much though.

Cat

That
is my absolute pet hate Cat! It's one of the very few things that makes
my blood boil. I can think of nothing more selfish than when a young
person in a sports car rolls up at the supermarket and goes straight
for the disabled space right outside the door! It's one of the few
times I wish to God that there was a parking attendent around to put a
ticket on their selfish little windscreens. 

On the other
point, I don't really get annoyed with the 5 items or less aisles. It's
just not something that bothers me. If I was in a huge hurry to do
something then I wouldn't be shopping so I just stand an wait patiently
like my Mummy used to tell me to when I was a child.  

Hello Cat, I've missed you.x

I volunteered with a disabled charity and got the charity together with the manager of my local store as starters to discuss 'space abuse'. Fine words were spoken by the manager, who was genuine, but head office of any retailer simply won't allow a situation where store can come into conflict with customer. Customer to customer if necessary ok.

DISGRACEFUL!

I think the five items or less thing is purely down to sheer ignorance / people in their own little world....

There was a group of lads with a trolley at my local Sainsbury's the other day - quite clear to everyone that they were standing in the "baskets only" aisle!

The poor checkout girl put the items through (they had three seperate lots of shopping in the one trolley) and gently pointed out it was a basket only queue.... They were so shocked - they hadn't even noticed the 5 foot sign above them, the tuts of the other shoppers, the expression on her face, nothing!

As a general observation, people are so wrapped up in themselves they often don't notice the bleeding obvious. I find myself walking around shops, getting out of other peoples way etc but I seem to be the only one doing it!! Everyone else just charges around as if you weren't there!!

Am I the only one???

I once took some stupid man to task for parking in a parent and child space.  ihad with me a four year old, a toddler (with special needs and unable to walk very far, so I had to carry her) and was very heavily pregnant.  He nipped in the space depsite my indicating and I had to park further away and lumber in.  Worst of all, his girlfriend or whatever she was just sat in the car waiting for him.  I quite quietly took him to task when I bumped into him in the store, and, though his only response was a torrent of abuse, I got a round of applause from the other shoppers.

Didn't help me much though.

Cat

jjnaughalty:

I thought it was just an M&S shopper thing. I haven't witnessed such an event at any other shop.

I worked for M&S some moons ago now as a student and was the unfortunate cashier when a well-to-do looking lady queued with a single linen basket (at the food tills...!). When she got to the till, she proceeded to take out countless items (I stopped counting at around a dozen) of goods from the foodhall. I could see the disgruntled faces of the other queuer's (?) and decided to challenge the lady and refused to serve her. She made her way to a regular checkout and snarled at me on the way out.

 The week later, I was hauled before the store manager and given down the banks for upsetting a customer who 'had shopped exclusively at M&S for decades' and will no longer do so due to my insolence.

Some folk believe they are a law unto themselves and should be banned from the store but instead, I get rollocked for protecting the interests of half a dozen or so other shoppers who would've been equally disgruntled if I'd served her.

There's just no justice eh?

Oh, and while we're on the subject, is it just me or do people amble slowly down the middle of the road bit of the Tesco car park in front of anyone else? They think it's a car park, so cars mustn't drive there.... 

Sorry, had to vent that somewhere.

Jon

 Who cares about some old bat who doesn't know the value of 5 is. Rather than looking at the fact that one person might not shop there anymore the manager should have realised that you made more people happy by not serving her. People are simply selfish. Yesterday myself and the girlfriend were loading the shopping into my car in a Sainsbury's carpark when a car approached with a good foot of space either side and proceeded to go through the gap really slowly as if there was a risk of then scratching their car and then proceed to say loudly "He could have just moved his trolley out of the way"

Why is it that people are so selfish and just want things to be easy for them and don't care if it inconveniences others. I'll admit to have gone through an 8 items or less aisle with more than 8 items but only with a couple of more items than I should have had. Am I a bad person :-P

for me it is those parking bandits that annoy me - I am tempted every time i see that able bodied 20-something lad in his flash sports car parking in the disabled bay to walk up and ask to see his disabled sticker.

Maybe I should start carrying a high vis vest in the car for just such an eventuallity - said 20-something may take me for more than an annoyed fellow shopper, and actually do something about his antics. 

I thought it was just an M&S shopper thing. I haven't witnessed such an event at any other shop.

I worked for M&S some moons ago now as a student and was the unfortunate cashier when a well-to-do looking lady queued with a single linen basket (at the food tills...!). When she got to the till, she proceeded to take out countless items (I stopped counting at around a dozen) of goods from the foodhall. I could see the disgruntled faces of the other queuer's (?) and decided to challenge the lady and refused to serve her. She made her way to a regular checkout and snarled at me on the way out.

 The week later, I was hauled before the store manager and given down the banks for upsetting a customer who 'had shopped exclusively at M&S for decades' and will no longer do so due to my insolence.

Some folk believe they are a law unto themselves and should be banned from the store but instead, I get rollocked for protecting the interests of half a dozen or so other shoppers who would've been equally disgruntled if I'd served her.

There's just no justice eh?

Oh, and while we're on the subject, is it just me or do people amble slowly down the middle of the road bit of the Tesco car park in front of anyone else? They think it's a car park, so cars mustn't drive there.... 

Sorry, had to vent that somewhere.

Jon

M&S: five items or less tills…

Recently I was standing in the ‘five items or less’ queue at Marks & Spencer when the cashier looked up and reminded the queue. A lady with more than five items left to find the main tills. Quite often customers knowingly have more than five items and dig their heels in to the inconvenience of the ‘law abiding queue’.

I spoke with a supervisor and asked if the tills could be limited to five items and on the sixth the transaction voided so that the offending customer could simply pick up his/her stuff and move on to the main tills. She said technically there was no problem but was looking uneasy. Retailers and Tesco is the master, hate actively to upset a customer, passively like the rest of the queue, disabled and mother and baby spaces abused, no problémo! Simply put if there’s gonna be a ruck Supermarket policy is let it be customer to customer please – oddly enough it’s not written down anywhere in those straightforward terms: it might upset a customer.

Don’t believe me? My new Tesco Express is on a main road and Tesco has commandeered some ’30 minute only spaces’. The rules are clear and the penalty for breaching the rules is draconian. Says who? NO not Tesco but its car park contractor speaking as if it is the principle.

QUESTION

Does the ‘five items or less’ content above strike a chord with anyone? If so please let me know. If it points to a communication with M&S I have access to the company at a high level so my communication would probably be read and replied to sensibly.

Any other retail comments very welcome.

Thank you.